It’s not uncommon for growing businesses to build out their own support teams. No matter what industry, if there is a website that customers and users interact with, that technology will need someone to maintain and update it. For businesses with multiple locations, it can be even more critical for their websites to remain up-to-date as that can be the main unifying entry point for customers in any location.

More isn’t always better. Take your local supermarket for example. Say you need to pick up a salad dressing before dinner, but you’re famished—you just want a dressing that will taste good so you can eat in peace. Yet, with over 175 salad dressings to choose from, a quick trip to the grocery store could leave you in the fetal position in aisle three wondering which dressing would best complement your three-ingredient salad.

The last thing customers want to do over the holidays is sit on hold or get shuffled between departments in search of answers to their questions. It’s enough to make even the most loyal customers say, “Bah humbug!” As the holidays rapidly approach, companies that want to avoid ending up on their customers’ naughty list are taking stock of their customer service and support departments in advance of the holiday rush.

U.S. companies lose more than $62 billion annually due to poor customer service. That’s why getting customer service right should be a priority for every business, regardless of size. And in order to provide this exceptional customer service, businesses need to be data-driven, and make use of data from a variety of different sources. Data isn’t as complicated as you might think. Most modern customer service systems provide the necessary support to build a data-driven customer service team.

It’s official! We’re the fastest-growing ecosystem in the world. There are 885 apps listed on the Freshworks unified marketplace — with 575+ Freshdesk apps — compared with Zendesk’s 805 and it just took us just over three years to achieve this number compared with Zendesk’s seven. As we continue to race towards yet another milestone (of 1000 apps), here’s a quick look at some of our latest additions!

We’re putting a spotlight on our brand new cast of app integrations. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Ride-hailing business Bolt has a unique view of customer support: instead of focusing on delighting customers, its primary goal is to resolve issues at lightning speed. “We’re not in the business of delighting our customers when they reach out for support. We understand they want a solution and they want it yesterday,” said Toby Humphrey, product manager at Bolt.

Many businesses boast about having a focus on customer satisfaction, but in many cases, it’s actually an afterthought. Businesses must adopt a strong customer-first strategy if they are going to truly meet customer needs and create amazing experiences. Let’s take a look at ways to build this strategy.

You get a support call escalated to you one minute, your boss tells you to call a different customer the next, and a few minutes later three new tickets hit your inbox, all with totally different issues. How do you and your team stay organized with your tickets when they’re flying in from everywhere?! If all customer problems came in through a single channel, such as email, it would make organizing and keeping track of your tickets so much easier.